So much to blog... so little time

It has been a birthday whirlwind the past few weeks around here. I was up to my eyeballs in getting Kiley's birthday put together that I almost forgot about my birthday. But luckily I have some awesome people around me that made it special. Chad's dad and I pretty much share a birthday so we usually have a family bbq with some cake to celebrate and this year was no different. Bbq, cake, beer and swimming-birthdays don't get much better than that. Chad went out of his way to make sure I didn't feel like he had forgotten about me with all the Kiley party planning and not only got me some awesome new running shoes for my 1/2 marathon training (he had been noticing my nasty, ugly, blistered, callused feet and figured that would be the best thing for me), but he came home after a long day at work and made a pretty elaborate birthday dinner. Love that man.
But best of all were a couple birthday calls from my some of the most important people in my life (from here on out I will just call them my Vegas family). The first call I missed so when I finally got around to checking my messages I got to hear my Vegas family sing me happy birthday while tears streamed down my face because I just love them so much and miss them horribly. The second call was from one of them calling to tell me what my present was-they went in together to get me a plane ticket to see them!!!! Okay-any kind of recognition is great on your birthday, it reminds you that someone thinks enough about you to remember your birthday, so the phone call was all I could ever hope for, but when you have people who know you so well to know that nothing would mean as much to you as seeing them and go out of their way to bring you so much happiness for your birthday...words can't describe how much that means. I really do have the best family-blood and not blood. Amazing. I can't wait to wrap my arms around them.
Then came Kiley's big day. I wasn't sure if I would be emotional or not but on her actual birthday I found myself just so happy to have such an amazing munchkin in our lives that I didn't think at all about how fast she is growing up. It was too bad that we had to work, but it sounds like she had a little birthday party at school (along with 2 other kids that have the same birthday). Then when she got home we had dinner and she got her first cupcake

and I put together the present that Chad and I got her. This awesome tricycle/stroller!

Kiley is now the envy of all the other babies on the block.

Her birthday party was that Saturday and we were so lucky to have about 20 people come and celebrate her but best of all, my grandma drove 13 hours each way to come for the weekend. I probably didn't express the gratitude I should have for her making so much of an effort to be here on such a special day but I was very touched. And I think someday Kiley will be too. Not only is it hard for me to know that there is this whole wonderful side of her family (mine) that she probably won't get to know as well due to distance but you just never know when is going to be the last opportunity to see the ones you love. And I take that very seriously now as I watch family get older and I see more and more tragic things happen to people out of the blue.
Enough sad talk.Back to happy birthday talk. And happy pictures.

The party was great minus one little detail. We like to joke that Chad is the food scientist because he can whip up some really amazing stuff. Lately he has been on a bread kick and more specifically pizza dough. He made this super awsome pizza a couple of times and we thought it would be perfect for the party. It wouldn't require utensils, not a whole lot of ingredients, it would be a crowd pleaser for sure and it would be quick and easy. WRONG. Pizza is quick and easy to eat but when you are a food scientist like Chad making your own dough and preparing your own original sauce it is anything but quick and easy. Plus we only have 2 pizza trays, so we could only make 2 pizzas at a time. If we would have just done the math: 10 pizzas, 2 at a time for 10 minutes a piece= almost an hour of baking time plus the time it takes to make the dough and sauce... OY! That was silly of us. The party started at 4, I don't think pizzas started coming out of the oven and we started eating until 6 (which is about when the party was supposed to be over). We were done eating about 7 and we rushed through cake and presents. And poor Chad pretty much missed the whole party because he was so busy getting pizza to all the hungry mouths! But it was a great party. I know Kiley had fun-maybe a little overwhelmed- but she spent the whole next day playing with her toys and I think her favorite part was singing Happy Birthday!

Next up was our niece Mackenzie, Chad's mom, and Mackenzie's other grandma's birthdays. I was a little worried everyone would be partied out but I think that party was the best of them all. Just relaxing and lots of swimming, laughs, hugs, and some awesome pics: )